Weekend Rumblings - News for January 6, 2018

Newest Royal Trevor Oaks commences his journey with the his new organization reports Jack Baer:

When he got the call, right-hander Trevor Oaks was in the middle of MLB’s Rookie Career Development Program, preparing to begin his Major League career with the Dodgers. Once the call was over, he started preparing for his career with the Royals.

Oaks was traded Thursday night to Kansas City as part of a three-team deal, ending a four-year stint in the Dodgers’ organization just as he was on the cusp of the big leagues.

Dodgers general manager Farhan Zaidi broke the news to Oaks through a phone call that came during dinner of the pitcher’s first day at the RCDP.

FanGraphs’ Eric Longenhagen scouts the Royals’ new prospects. On Erick Mejia:

Erick Mejia, UTIL (from Dodgers)

Mejia had a respectable 2017 at Double-A Tulsa, slashing .289/.357/.413 while learning third base and seeing lots of time at more familiar positions, shortstop and second. The switch-hitting 23-year-old has viable swings from both sides of the plate and projects to have an average hit tool with below-average game power. He’s a flashy albeit somewhat erratic defender and only average in aggregate, though he has the athleticism and range (he’s a plus runner) to be above average if he can continue to refine his defense. He projects as a utility infielder.

FanGraphs’ Craig Edwards wonders if their valuations of Eric Hosmer are perhaps too modest:

Carlos Santana is currently a player of roughly equivalent value to Eric Hosmer. He just signed with the Phillies for three years and $60 million. That would appear to make Santana a bargain relative to Hosmer, but note the ages of the two players. The Phillies are paying Santana for his age-32 through age-34 seasons. Hosmer, meanwhile, wouldn’t hit that mark until year five of his contract. Santana didn’t reach the majors until later in his career, but in his age-27 season, he put up a Hosmer-like season, with a 132 wRC+ and 3.6 WAR. He was probably a 2.5-WAR player at that time and proceeded to put up about 11 WAR over his age-28 to -31 seasons, just a bit better than Hosmer is projected for above. Using some slight mathematical contortions, we can say that, if Hosmer does what Santana just did, he might be worth a three-year, $60 million contract in four years time, and that the next four years are probably worth around $100 million. Voila, Hosmer is worth $160 million.

Rustin Dodd got “Dick Lovelady” trending yesterday:

And there’s news on the Seth Maness front:

RR’s Patrick Brennan gives notes on the non-roster spring training invitees at Royals Farm Report.

BP KC’s David Lesky gives his Friday notes on Hosmer’s possibly fictitious offers, the rotation, and the payroll picture.

Looks like we might finally be getting a return of Flight of the Conchords in special form, along with tons of other news spilled about the What We Do in the Shadows world.

Apparently Jon Gruden signed a ten-year coaching deal with the Raiders worth $100MM.

Jon Paul Steuer died at 33 this week. He played Alexander Worf (yes, I know the character’s last name was Rozhenko).

Tiffany Haddish was honored by the New York Film Critics Circle and gave an 18-minute acceptance speech. If you’ve been paying any attention, you know you should watch this speech because she’s awesome.

Have you taken your arsgang yet?

The song—eh, let’s just go album—of the day is Jazz Samba by Stan Getz and Charlie Byrd, which I just listened to yesterday: